An English Countryside kind of Lifestyle

Through his eyes

Hamish hadn’t felt this happy in years, not since the birth of his first child in fact. His lunch time meetings with Emily had become daily occurrences and he was enjoying learning everything there was to know about her. So far he knew that she had moved back to the area because her ex boyfriend had decided to take a job in New Zealand, she was enjoying sharing a house with her sister, and that she liked to buy books she’d never read. He had accompanied her one lunch time to a bookshop in town as she strategically chose four books, scrutinising each cover for marks. She had persuaded him to buy a copy of Tender is the night and he had hidden it in his desk drawer at work knowing that Beth would find it odd that he had even bought a book.
Emily was bright and interesting and made him feel good about himself; she had ambition and wanted to make something of herself. He thought back to when he first met Beth trying to rack his brains to remember a time when she was full of life and talked about something other than the PTA.
He had just taken his first job after University when he met Beth. Tall and confident she had caught his eye in a bar in Shorditch, where he has having a swift drink with his work colleagues before getting a taxi across town to his mothers for dinner. He remembered her laughing with her friends and when he had gone over to her she had told him she had a boyfriend. He had given her his card anyway on the false pretence that she was bound to need a solicitor one day, and she had called him three weeks later. He had used his new found wealth to wine and dine her within an inch of her life, and he had talked with her at length about how much he was enjoying his first step on the career ladder. She had been charming and witty with bright eyes and pretty clothes. He had felt proud that she was there with him and had told his parents and all his friends about her.
He couldn’t tell anyone about Emily and no one at work had seemed to notice that he had taken to having an hour away from work every lunch time. She knew he wore a wedding ring and he had told her about his children, but he preferred to engage her in conversation about books and films and her friends. His enjoyment of the situation outweighed the guilt he knew he should be feeling and so he brushed it under the carpet at least for the time being.